After a sleepless night in very hot, rooms that were not air-conditioned, we were all ready to get moving. Having a/c in the van was truly a life-saver. The road to Kaunas was “interesting” with lots of construction – we were all glad to be driving it during daylight.

Although we’ve been traveling for several days already, it was only when we arrived here in Kaunas, which my Jewish ancestors called Kovno, that I felt like the trip had finally begun. We checked in at the Hof Hotel at about 10 AM and in spite of being here hours before check-in, our rooms were ready and they had a/c. As promised, the archives were directly across the street. I was interested to learn that the archive was built over the basement of a former synagogue.

The archives were expecting us, and had stacks of books and records waiting for us. We had sent them information about 55 records we wanted to look at in advance. We started with a meeting with the Director who was very generous with his time and had a marvelous feast waiting for us.

I am always amazed at the age of the records we are permitted to view. The paper is fragile, the ink is often faded. We hold history in our hands.

I was feeling exhausted and a bit sick from the heat and left the archives before the others, who stayed for about an hour longer. After cool showers and short naps, we were all ready to join Lina’s sister, Vilma, who came in from Vilnius.

In addition to so much else we find impressive here, is the food presentation

After dinner, Vilma went to catch a train back to Vilnius and we decided to see some of the section of the city near our hotel. Since a picture is definitely worth 1,000 words, I’ll stop talking now.